Our producing fields in Operations North Sea are Troll, Fram, Sleipner, Kvitebjørn, Visund, Grane, Brage, Veslefrikk, Huldra, Glitne, Volve, Heimdal, Vilje and Vale. The area is dominated by the production of natural gas, as 59% of the equity production in 2008 was gas. The petroleum reserves are located under water depths of between 80 and 330 metres.

In 2008, StatoilHydro's share of the area's production was 250 mbbl of oil, condensate and NGL per day and 49 mmcm (1,732 mmcf) of gas per day, or 558 mboe in total per day.

Brage is an oilfield east of Oseberg in the northern part of the North Sea. The oil is piped to Oseberg and on through the pipeline in the Oseberg Transport System to the Sture terminal. A gas pipeline is tied back to Statpipe. A new discovery in the Knockando area in the early autumn proved very successfully and came on production in October this year.

Fram is connected to the Troll C platform for processing. Oil production started in 2003, and gas exports started in October 2007.

Glitne is an oilfield located about 40 kilometres north-west of Sleipner East. Glitne is the smallest field development on the NCS using a stand-alone production system.

Grane is the first field on the NCS to produce heavy crude oil, and it is StatoilHydro's largest heavy oil field. The field is located to the east of the Balder field in the northern part of the North Sea. Oil from Grane is piped to the Sture terminal, where it is stored and shipped. Injection gas is imported to Grane in a pipeline from the Heimdal facility. As a consequence, after around 25 years of oil production, Grane will produce the injected gas.

Heimdal is a gas field located in the northern part of the North Sea. Heimdal mainly operates as a processing centre for other fields. Huldra, Skirne and Vale deliver gas to Heimdal, and gas from Oseberg is also transported via Heimdal. Heimdal had reduced regularity in 2007, which contributed to reduced production on Heimdal Vale and Huldra.

Sleipner consists of the Sleipner East, Gungne and Sleipner West gas and condensate fields. Condensate from the Sleipner field is transported to the gas processing plant at Kårstø. The gas from Sleipner has a high level of carbon dioxide, which is extracted on the field and re-injected into a sand layer beneath the seabed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to the air. We are currently exploring several prospects and discoveries in the Sleipner area that can potentially be tied in to Sleipner.

The Troll Area comprises Troll and Fram and the Vega and Gjøa development projects. Troll is the largest gas field on the NCS and a major oilfield. The Troll Field Project submitted a new Plan for development, operation and installation in June 2008 for IOR in the area.

In November we started test production for oil in the thin oil layers in the gas province of Troll East.

Veslefrikk is an oilfield located north of Oseberg in the northern part of the North Sea. Huldra is located in the Viking Graben and developed by a (normally unmanned) platform, remotely controlled from the Veslefrikk field. Oil from Veslefrikk is exported through the Oseberg Transportation System, while gas is exported to Kårstø. Veslefrikk also processes condensate from Huldra.

The first oil flowed from the Vilje field to the Alvheim floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO) on 1 August 2008. The Vilje field is located in the northern part of the North Sea, north of the Heimdal field. Vilje is the first StatoilHydro-operated field on the Norwegian continental shelf tied in to an installation that is run by another operator.

The Visund oilfield is located to the east of the Snorre field in the northern part of the North Sea. The field contains oil and gas in several tilted fault blocks with separate pressure and liquid systems. The oil is piped to Gullfaks A for storage and export. Gas is exported to the Kvitebjørn gas pipeline and on to Kollsnes.

Volve is an oilfield located in the southern part of the North Sea approximately eight kilometres north of Sleipner East. The development is based on production from the Mærsk Inspirer jack-up rig, with Navion Saga used as a storage ship to hold crude oil before export. Gas is piped to the Sleipner A platform for final processing and export. Volve started producing in February 2008.

The Kvitebjørn field resumed production on 27 January 2009 after being shut down since August 2008 due to a gas leak created by damage caused to the Kvitebjørn gas pipeline. The damage, which was caused by a ship's anchor, was discovered during an inspection in November 2007, and production shut down. Production resumed in January 2008 after surveys showed that the pipeline could be temporarily used for export. Repair work was scheduled for summer 2008, but during preparatory work for the repair, critical equipment underwent extensive functional testing and parts of the equipment failed. Consequently, the repair was postponed until 2009. While making a routine inspection of the pipeline after the planned maintence stop in August 2008, we discovered a gas leak from the pipeline and production was immediately stopped.

Gas exports from Visund, which also uses the pipeline, were also affected by the pipeline damage.